Posts

Australian Icons

Image
Australian icons are people who have made a significant impact on the country’s history. These icons represent Australia’s rich traditions and culture. They are admired by Australians everywhere. Australian icons have also inspired many creative works. Australian writers Clive James and Rolf de Wigmore have written several iconic books about iconic Australians.   Australian icon John F. Kennedy was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. He is best known for offering moral support to the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 with his “We Choose Peace” speech. This speech brought the world together in support of ending the Cold War and reducing nuclear weapons stockpiling. In addition, he is remembered for his iconic words, “Let us never negotiate out of fear… but let us never fear to negotiate…” when he opened the 1959 American University commencement speech with these words. Another well-known Kennedy ...

Saving an Aussie Icon from the Other Side of the World

Image
 Australia is a country rich in natural beauty and culture. The continent of Australia is made up of many different states and territories, all of which have their own unique features. One of these states is New South Wales, also known as New South Wales. A wetside icon of Australia was originally from New Zealand. However, the New Zealand government decided to sell the icon to a private owner in 1989. The Australian government fought to save the wetside icon from New Zealand, but the fight was unsuccessful. The icon was sold to an Australian museum, where it currently resides, but not on the other side of the world—it’s literally just across the harbor from Boston! Though the icon is no longer visible from Australia, it’s still a part of Australian culture. There are many online communities that memorialize this iconic landmark, such as this one dedicated to saving an “icon” that no longer exists in real life.   A wetside icon of Australia was originally from New Zea...

Australian Legends | Australian Icons | Ned Kelly | Jack Riley

Image
Jack Riley, the original man from Snowy River, was born in 1841 in County Mayo, Ireland, arriving alone in Sydney in 1854 on an indentured passage at 13. Ned Kelly, on the other hand, was the son of an Irish convict, Red Kelly, who was transported to Tasmania. Red Kelly and Ellen Quin settled in Beveridge, north of Melbourne, where Ned was born in 1854. Red died in 1866 when Ned was 12, compelling Ned to leave school and provide for Ellen and his siblings. So, both Jack and Ned’s circumstances dramatically changed as they entered adolescence, turning them into men overnight. Whilst Jack Riley and Ned Kelly’s familial experiences of the law are contrasting, they both grew up in the marginalised Irish Catholic world of sectarian nineteenth-century rural Australia. They were both fully aware of the class distinctions in Australia, especially concerning land ownership and related privileges. Their perspectives on the later Gold Rush and Bushranger periods would have been similar. Both had ...